Needs Assessment and Research Country-specific and culture-specific information is required to support advocacy, and formulation of programmes. Issues relating to reproductive health are sensitive, specially where adolescents are concerned.
The lives of very young adolescents are not typically documented. Their sexual attitudes and behaviours are not known when these years are supposed to be the most critical phase of their lives knowing that most of their expectation and beliefs are developed during this time. Since many of the adolescents are in school during this crucial period, these years are prime
target for educational campaign. Curricula on adolescent reproductive health and sexuality should be based on the results of such research studies. Both quantitative and qualitative information is needed to understand attitude, values and behaviour of youngpeople.

Planning, Designing and Implementing Programmes Programmes should be flexible enough to respond to changing needs of adolescents and to address the heterogeneity among adolescents. Needs and requirements vary for younger and older adolescents, for the urban and the rural, for those in-school and those out-of-school, for the married and theunmarried, and for men and women. Service providers must have the necessary technical and communications skills to deliver adolescent-friendly service. Educators and health workers need to collaborate in providing information,guidance and counselling.

Involvement of Adolescents in Planning, Implementation and Evaluation of Programmes Active participation of adolescents in development, implementation and evaluation of programmes would go a long way to ensure that the programmes are relevant, well-targeted, gender sensitive, flexible, and responsive to the needs of adolescents. Because of peer group influence, participation of adolescents in programme design and implementation is critical tocommunicating with them.

Formal and Non-formal Education Plays a Crucial Role in Educating the Youth on Reproductive and SexualHealth Schools remain to be one of the most credible and important sources of information and education on reproductive and sexual health. However, many studies have shown that the youth turn to the mass media and their peers as the most popular sources of
information. Very often however, such information are not only inaccurate but are sensationalized. This is where the formal instruction plays a role in providing accurate information tailored to the educational needs of the young, based on the cultural and religious environments of their communities. In many parts of the world, the educational sector, both formal and non-formal, has introduced population education, family life education, sex education and the like in various forms and school levels. Very often however, these efforts are considered timid – they are introduced into the curricula in small amount, scattered and diffused in many subjects resulting in unconnected messages. They are also usually implemented in short period of time resulting in the preclusion of those disadvantaged adolescents who are likely to drop out of schools. Furthermore, they often only focus on the biological and technical aspects related to human anatomy and reproductive
systems and changes during puberty and leave out the social and behavioural aspects dealing with dating, relationships, marriage and contraception aimed at developing life skills in decision-making, problems solving, values clarification and sexual negotiation which will prepare the youth in dealing with life’s vicissitudes and problems concerning theirreproductive health. As is commonly misperceived, sexuality and reproductive health education does not encourage sexual activity among the young people. Studies indicate that sexuality education does not lead young people to engage in sex. In fact, most of these studies show that education on these subjects is associated with postponement of the first sexual experience and with the use of contraceptives among those who are sexually active. (58) The second volume will deal more on the need for
reproductive and sexual health in both the in-school and out-of-school sectors as well as the guidelines for developing an educational programme and curriculumin these fields.